After years of dreaming of my perfect scooter I've narrowed it down to a bike that resembles 1973 Rally 200 made with a VIN less than 18000 painted Azzuro China (China Blue). Thanks to Benji @ http://vesparally200.tumblr.com/, Hilde @ Maskes Vespa Klassiekers and all the folks on MV I've been able to find out exactly what I want and just need to save the money for it.

My motor is currently being built to resemble a stock Rally 200 engine but it will be a faster touring engine. Mark Ito @ Scooterspeed hooked me up and got me all dialed in with a Pinasco SS 221cc kit, Pinasco 60mm Crank, Malossi MHR Reed block, Dellorto 30mm carb, BGM SS Clutch, SIP Touring Flywheel, BGM Bigbox Exhaust with stock primary and gears. Hot Rod Al did all the porting work and set the crank up for the reed set up.

The donor frame for this bike is a 74 Rally that has had a rough life but has been good to me so I'm cleaning her up and giving her a new life. The new scoot will have no turn signals and look exactly like a European model right off the assembly line.

Pics and updates will be sparse until I get the money to get the frame in for paint but I wanted to get this thread started.

Donor bike aka White Rally

Gorgeous work by Hot Rod Al

The 221 Kit

BGM Super Strong Clutch. The things a BEAST!

The picture that started this whole idea

Last edited by MJRally on Sun Feb 24, 2019 10:14 am; edited 3 times in total

Well today was a productive day stripping White Rally all the way down. I started a little after 8 and went at it like a mad man. Everything was saved so I'll have spare parts galore. When the bike was totally stripped down I fired up everything I had with a motor in it to give this bike a final salute!

Tomorrow I'll drop it off at the paint/body guy to get things moving. The frame is straight but there are some holes and cracks that need to be filled. Since I'll be working a bunch the next few months it won't bother me that its sitting at a painters. I'm hoping to have everything back by January 1st. December I'm hoping to rebuild the front fork and place my big order for all new cosmetic pieces.

One last look before I started disassembling.

Motor out. Frame was cracking where the US tractor tail light was bolted.

Just put in my first order to the fine folks at Maskes Vespa Klassiekers shop in Holland. I found out about them via the "One Vespa leads to another" video that was circulating the web. Since I needed info on a Euro spec bike what better way to get knowledge and parts than by finding a European Vespa restorer. Peter and Hilde have been very awesome. While translation is somewhat of a problem, a bit of hunting their site and google translate has remedied things.

Since the bikes at the body shop, all of the badging and external stuff needs to be here so all the holes can be measured, drilled, etc. I wish I would have known that ahead of time, but since this is my first restoration I'm not beating myself up. I just bought a tail light, new rear badge, kill button (instead of keyed kill switch), legshield badge, front fender crest and high beam indicator for my Euro headset. I forgot that the AC horn will be smaller than the 3.5" hole for a US battery horn so I'll try to get the dimensions so the body guy can fill in the horn cast a bit and order a horn on the next go around.

Their website takes paypal and ships overseas so I'm excited to see what I get. Until then take a look at their site and shop.

Well the frames finally back from the body guy and its off to paint. Everything has been filled and moved so it resembles a Euro spec. Hoping to pick it up at the end of the month so I can focus on final assembly. More parts have been ordered from Holland but because of the holidays, things have been slow no matter how much I try to move things along.

On a fun positive note, the order was made for custom vanity plates for the new scoot. I'm just waiting on the DMV to report back when I can pick them up.

Frame was blasted and primered. Color match looks pretty good and painting starts Monday. Paint is going to be single stage and true to factory correct as possible.

Last order of parts was placed at Maskes Vespa shop out of Holland. Everything is top quality and worth the wait. Since I've been away for work, Ive had everything shipped to my parents house. Mom was curious about what I was blowing my money on and remarked about how good the products were! Shipping takes a while since everything gets held up in customs FYI.

Due to my January work commitments, I had my girlfriend take the motor and front fork to Vespa Motorsports to have them assemble the motor and powdercoat/rebuild the front fork. I'll visit the shop Tuesday and see how progress is going/help out if possible.

Next step for me is buying/staging everything so that when the painter is finished, I can start assembly as soon as possible.

Hi guys. Sorry for the long delay. This project has been a true labor of love but I want it done right so I've been taking my time. Unfortunately a lot of people were involved in this project and some of them havent been entirely professional

Going back to where I left off, my new friend Josh did the painting and then assembly was supposed to be done by another friend who owed me a favor. While that was going on the motor, fork and parts went off for powdercoating/blasting/ polishing. The motor was done quick but the fork and powdercoated parts sat around.

After two years I said enough is enough. I got my parts back and things started happening. The fork was assembled and what assembly I could do, I took care of before leaving for work (Merchant Marine). The rest was sent off to Massimo's Vespa Shop nearby. I just got home yesterday and am picking up my rolling chassis tomorrow.

I'm hoping in the next few days to finish the last few things and finally fire her up!

Cowls painted and stickers applied

Josh painting the numbers on the shifter tube. Last thing to get painted.

The scoots home now and motors in, cables in and still a few more things to do:
-get the new seat frame upholstered
-get the helmet hook polished and installed
-install the voltage regulators (2 or more since I'm using a P200 stator with an AC unregulated harness)
-install everything from the last shopping list.
-Wait for the rear hub to come back from powder coating and install

I don't like the script badge on the legshield, should be the block type.

Nitpicking I know but it annoys me, lovely job other than that.

Actually no. This color Rally with a VIN less than 18000, was only sold in the Greek/Scandinavian market and one of the many different things from a normal Italian Rally was the script badge and the orientation of it.

Sorry for the lack of updates guys. I had stuff to report but work and life got in the way.

When I ended things last, I had the motor buttoned up enough that I was able to fill the carb with fuel and get it to run for a little bit. For some reason I stripped the splines on the kickstart lever. Everything was torqued but I wrecked it. I put another one on just so I could do a little more tuning work and then I stripped kickstart number 2. I also received a new seat cover so I took it to a local upholsterer to shape some foam and cover the seat.

Two weeks later I got home and started checking in on folks. The upholsterer was done and the seat looks great. He unfortunately installed the seat strap screw with a small screwdriver and marred up the face of it torquing it down. Oh well.

Going back to one of my parts suppliers, I told them about the bad quadrant and they gave me a new quadrant and a deal on new levers. Apologies accepted and moving on, I split the cases apart in the frame and installed the new quadrant.

Then it was onto body trim questions. Did 73 Rallys use phillips head or flat head screws on the horn and floormat rails? Lots of back and forth for research came up with no answer. I'm going with flat head and hope thats right.

Then it was time to start getting some aluminum stuff polished. My friend who is a detailer for the local Harley dealership said she could help me out and polished the helmet hook for me in a few minutes. Doing that by hand or with my 3" polishing wheel would have took ten times that. Decision made she's getting the scoot when its finished to polish things once more and give the bike a good once over.

So that leads to today. I was supposed to help the girlfriend and do a bunch of chores but instead I spent all day in the garage working on the scoot. I started with electrical and found brake lights but no horn/headlight/pilot bulb. Tearing into the switch, I found it wired correct but still couldnt get anything at the bulb. Digging deeper I found the spade connectors at the bulb half assed crimped and not making contact with the bulb holder. I soldered and insulated everything, blew a few bulbs testing the system and its now working and tight.

License plate was installed using a Scooterwest mounting kit. Bolts were too long on that so I had to measure twice, cut three times with a dremel tool to get the bolts the correct length. If I had the right tool I could have been done in 15 minutes but since I was using the weak cutting dremel discs, I broke a dozen of them and the whole process took 2 hours.

Then I moved onto the gas tank. It was full of blast media from sandblasting and painting so I spent another good bit of time cleaning and flushing it. Fingers crossed I got all of it and I dont clog the carb in the first 5 minutes.

Then it was onto installing the seat. I used 3 generic M7 bolts but I found 2 LOBO stamped original bolts and polished them up for the rear gas tank mounting bolts.

Then it was time for a fire up and test everything once more. Carb mixture screw is a little lean but everything else is looking good. Tomorrow I'll ride it down to Vespa Motorsports for a motor break in ride and to once again go shopping for all the little things I still need.

Thanks for following along folks.

Ouch this hurt. $60 a piece for a kickstart lever

Thank god you can split the cases of a Vespa in the frame.

I bought a replacement helmet hook but wanted to use as much original hardware as possible. I'll have plenty of spares/ stuff to sell when this is finally finished.

My detailer Jaime had this done in about 5 minutes tops.

Electrical working! My problem with the headlight was partially the switch, but mostly the lack of a dedicated ground.

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